BEGINNINGS This delightful pop-punk duo met when Mr. Bowman played a show with another group at SUNY New Paltz, where Ms. Luciano was a student. The next day, he administered his first-ever stick-and-poke tattoo (a small daisy on her foot), and she convinced him that she wanted to make a music video for his band. That turned out to be the least of it.

“I was like, I don’t want to stand around and film these boys — I want to do that,” recalled Ms. Luciano, who vibrates with spirit and squeals often. “I want to jump around and be stupid onstage. I want to try!”

She had toyed with writing diarylike songs — once, at an open-mike night as a young teenager, she covered Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” on ukulele — but Mr. Bowman, who is appropriately deferential to the talent and charm of his pocket-size partner, played cheerleader.

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Ms. Luciano and Mr. Bowman rehearsing at their Brooklyn studio.CreditAndre D. Wagner for The New York Times

“I’ll never forget the first time she played an electric guitar,” he said. “She hit a big power chord, and you could see her eyes” — he made explosion sounds. “The whole world changed in that moment. Sparks were flying out of her eyeballs.” Ms. Luciano concurred with a cartoon shriek.

WHAT NOW? Small-town basement gigs turned to blog buzz and a well-received five-song EP, “Over Easy,” on which Diet Cig established its hallmark: peppy, overdriven anthems that transcend simple trappings on the strength of Ms. Luciano’s expert phrasing and super-specific, pithy, slice-of-life lyrics. On the band’s debut full-length album, “Swear I’m Good at This,” out Friday, nearly every line seems made for LiveJournal or AOL Instant Messenger away messages, if only those services weren’t well before the time of a songwriter who got into rock music after discovering Fall Out Boy on the radio.

Much of the new album turns on Ms. Luciano coming of age as she makes a name for herself in a male industry. “My stomach hurts,” she sings on “Tummy Ache,” “’cause it’s hard to be a punk while wearing a skirt.” Elsewhere, she adds another layer of relatability: “I wanna be the best one at this/but I don’t wanna get out of bed.”

Ms. Luciano, in brown overalls and a pink cape coat, and Mr. Bowman, low-key in a hooded sweatshirt, recently discussed their fledgling careers over breakfast in Manhattan. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

How have you developed as a lyricist?

ALEX LUCIANO I think I was more conscious about what my words meant on this album. I chose to address certain issues that I didn’t really address on the EP, like sexism. I’ve blossomed more as a feminist and an activist in the past couple years, and those themes are a lot more present. But the songs are still very personal. The opener of the record is me talking about how I dated a guy with the same name in high school, and it was weird having sex. [Laughs]

How important was it to the band’s development that you started off playing house shows?

LUCIANO I think the college-town vibe fostered this sense of “It’s O.K. to not be that good.” It allowed us to enter our life as a band with being so self-conscious. It was just: “We’re playing in a friend’s basement because they asked us to this afternoon.” It was a safe place to get better. I was grateful to grow up in that scene.

How were the gender dynamics?

LUCIANO It was a lot of white men. I was super-frustrated by that but tried to play nice and do my own thing. College towns go in waves, which is really cool. Right now in New Paltz, there’s incredible femme and women musicians rocking. I was inspired as a woman to do my thing because of other female and femme artists — Hop Along, Frankie Cosmos, Best Coast. Hopefully we’re leading the same way for people coming next.

Have you felt yourself develop into someone people look up to?

NOAH BOWMAN After shows, so many younger girls come up to Alex. It’s really emotional to watch from the outside — she just makes their day. She had a pen pal who was 9 at the time, who covered our songs.

LUCIANO The first cover of our songs ever! She’s actually in our new music video for “Tummy Ache,” two years later. She’s a camper at Girls Rock Philly and has a band. She’s inspired by us, but I’m inspired by her. I’m still getting used to this idea that people relate to what I’m saying. I’ve slowly been figuring out that being honest with my emotions can be enough, in a way, to show people it’s O.K. to feel your feelings and not be ashamed of being bossy or loud or weird or goofy or embarrassed. They’re like, “You get me!” and I’m like, “No, you get me!”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C5 of the New York edition with the headline: Playing Peppy Feminist Pop-Punk for All Ages. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe